I can’t remember when exactly Europe started to “wow” me with its very presence. As an American, I don’t often appreciate the aesthetics in our big cities. Certainly, San Francisco is a superb mix of nature and urban, water and land, old and new, but the old only goes back 100 years, if that....
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It’s not always inevitable that Dokdo will come up as a foreign English teacher in Korea. Unless you’re assigning your students newspaper articles to read and they happen to choose one regarding relations between Korea and Japan, or they happen to have particularly right-wing parents who want to use their children to promote Dokdo...
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Whether it’s a bus or an airplane, I’m always relieved when few people show up, leaving me free to stretch my legs across the aisle. This weekend was my first time returning to Seoul since my arrival after New Year’s. In addition to soaking up a little culture at the Sejong Center with Aida,...
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This is the first time I’ve seen anything like corporal punishment in Korea. I witnessed my old boss grab students by the ears, but generally this was done without malice and only if students had really been misbehaving, e.g. hitting others, making others cry with insults. Nevertheless, my current employer is taking things to...
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First off, I should point out my situation is unique. The majority of English teachers are hired prior to departure and able to secure their Korean working visas in their respective home countries. I, on the other hand, received a 90-day tourist visa on arrival and hand delivered my E2 paperwork to an employer...
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Now that I’m back on the Korean peninsula, there are certain foods for which I can finally satisfy my cravings. It’s true, Korean food is probably the most widely available on the planet and not necessarily lacking in quality outside of Korea, but there are certain dishes I’ve yet to see in the US....
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Living in this country for a sufficient amount of time makes the most banal imported food seem like a scrumptious feast. Americans know all too well when Taco Bell first opened its doors outside of military bases. I don’t believe a decent purveyor of New York style pizza can yet be found in Itaewon,...
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Happy Tuesday everyone. I’m sorting things out in Uljin and making plans for my Philippines trip. I’ve said it before, but it’s weird just how not weird it is to be back in a foreign place where I lived and worked for over a year. It doesn’t feel like I never left, because I...
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My original plan when housesitting for friends in rural Korea had been to just take some time to enjoy the hot springs, build up my strength at the gym, and catch up on some writing assignments I had been too lazy to do over the holidays in Texas. I may still get around to...
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Rolf Potts may extol the virtues of no-baggage travel and keeping your possessions to a minimum, but this time, I couldn’t resist bringing all these goodies into Korea. Thankfully, I didn’t have an issue with customs. 1. Two bottles of Napa wine, The Prisoner and La Crema. Wine is available in Korea, but at...
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